Letter or bill file



(No Model.)

0. T.VGOEWEY. LETTER 0R BILL FILE.

No. 459,687. Patented Sept. 15,1891.

a A 1 ,7 an /A 74.

ATTORNEYS WITNESSES: MW

0.. PMDYMIYNOI wnsumuron n c UNITED STATES l PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES THORP GOEWVEY, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

LETTER OR BILL FILE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 459,687, dated September 15, 1891.

Application filed November 10, 1890. Serial No. 370.929. (No model.)

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES THORP GoE- WEY, of St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and Improved Letter or Bill File, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to a letter or bill file for preserving letters, bills, papers, or other documents or samples of fabrics, and has for its object to provide a simple, inexpensive, durable, and efficient device of this character which is not liable to tear the papers, documents, or fabrics filed by it, and will hold them all securely, while allowing any one of them to be quickly and easily removed at pleasure.

The invention will first be described, and then will be particularly defined in the claims hereinafter set forth.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters and figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved letter or bill file with the board or tablet partly broken away. Fig. 2 is a top view of the file removed from the tablet, drawn to a larger scale, and with the paper-holdin g pins and hook-rods partly broken away; and

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional side view of the file in open condition, and illustrates the manner of selecting papers therefrom.

The file proper is made with a base or bed plate A, which is preferably screwed to the upper or outer end of a suitable tablet or board 1, which will have the same or a little greater width and length than the letters, bills, papers, or fabrics it is proposed to hold by the file device. This tablet is common to devices of this character and has the usual hole 2, by which it may be hung upon a nail or peg driven into a desk or wall.

At or near the lower or inner edge of the bed-plate A are fixed two outwardly-projecting file-pinsB B, which are preferably tubular and in any event are countersunk or bored at the outer ends at Z) to make seats for the preferably-tapered extremities c of two hookshaped rods or arched file-pins O O, which at cast in one piece therewith.

their inner ends are pivoted to supports on the bed-plate. I prefer to connect the back ends of the two hook-rods C 0 together by a cross rod or bar D and form said parts 0 C D from a single piece of wire bent, as clearly shown in the drawings, and whereby I am enabled to pivot the hook-rods when thus connected to two studs E E, which rise or project from the bed-plate and are preferably These studs have transverse end grooves or semicircular recesses e e, which form half-bearings for the hook cross-bar D, and the studs are also preferably provided with opposite front and rear edge recesses or grooves e e, which receive and form guards or guides to the opposite sides or limbs of a staple F, the bend f of which forms the other half-bearing for the cross-bar D when the extremities of the staple are fastened by riveting or otherwise to the main bed-plate A of the file. I prefer to use two of these studs or posts E, with corresponding hinge-staples F, one stud and staple being at or near the point of junction of each hook-rod O with the cross-bar D, as shown in the drawings. It is obvious that the studs or posts E and staples F make a very substantial and inexpensive hinge connection of the hook-rods with the bed-plate, and that the fit of the staples into the grooves e c of engaged by the outer part or end of a platespring G, which is fastened at its other end to the bed-plate A and preferably by a screw a, which passes through the bent rear end of the spring into the back of the bed-plate, the latter being apertured at a for the passage of the spring. The free extremity of the spring is preferably bent rearward at g to avoid catching onto the papers H, placed on the file, and near this extremity the spring is The outer upper or' provided with two recesses or transverse concavities g F, into either of which the eccentric d of the hook-rod cross-bar D may enter to latch or look the hook-rods at extremes of movement.

The operation of the file device is very simple and eitective. To place letters or documents thereon it is only necessary to swing the hook-rods O away from the pins B and. press the letters ll. onto said pins, and when the rods are again swung down or forward to the pins the pins and rods form continuous guides of about equal diameter throughout and allow the pile of papers or letters to be easily turned or laid back from the pins onto the rods when any one or more of the papers are to be consulted. lVhen the hook-rods C are thus closed to the file-pins B, the eccentric face or projection (Z of the cross-bar D will be in the concavityg of the spring G, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. To remove one of the inside letters H from the file-say the one 7LtlllS paper will first be found by swinging all those in front of it onto the arched hook-rods C C, and these rods will then be swung backward, either by pressure on the papers on them or otherwise, to the position shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, at which time the eccentric (l of the cross-bar D will enter the concavity of the spring G, which thus will hold the hook-rods swung back open to the post stops or shoulders 6 whereupon the letter 72 may readily he slipped from the filepins 13. Should it be desired not to return this letter 72. to the file, the hook-rods C will again be swung down or forward to the pins 13, where they will be held by the concavity g of the spring acting on the eccentric (Z of the cross-bar.

This paper-file has decided advantages over files in which the movable hooks or pins are to be shifted or turned sidewise from the fixed pins, as with this latter construction the papers or letters are liable to be torn away at the holes by the ends of the moving pins, while this accident is impossible with my device, wherein the movable hook-rods or pins 0 swing directly away from the ends of the fixed pins 13, and this easy direct action allows the file to be fully opened by continuing the pressure upon the papers which. have been swung upward onto the hook-rods or arched file-pins. Furthermore,,the entire device is very simple, inexpensive, and durable and not liable to get out of order and easily repaired when accidentally broken in file-pins, of hook-rods pivoted in the saidbearings and having an eccentric between the bearings and a spring secured to the bedplate and provided with two recesses or concavities adapted to engage the eccentric of the hook-rods to hold them engaged with the fixed rod or disengaged therefrom, substantially as described.

2. In a letter or bill file, the combination, with a bed-plate and lugs thereon having end recesses e and side grooves e, of movable hook.r0ds or arched file-pins having axes entering the lug-recesses c, and staples holding the ho0k-rods in the recesses c and entering the lug-grooves e, substantially as described.

3. In a letter or bill file, the combination, with a bed-plate having fixed file-pins B and lugs E, provided with end recesses e and side grooves c, of hook-rods or arched file-pins C 0, adapted to the fixed pins B and connected to a cross-bar D, which rests in the lug-recesses e, and staples F, holding the cross-bar to the lugs and entering the lug-grooves e, substantially as described.

4. The combination, in a letter or bill file, ot' a bed-plate A, having lugs E E provided with recesses e and grooves e, fixed file-pins B on the bed-plate, a cross-bar D, held by staples F into the recesses e of the lugs E, said staples entering the lug-grooves e, said cross-bar carrying hook-rods or arched filepins 0 0, adapted to the fixed pins B and having an eccentric cl, and a spring G, held to the bed-plate and acting on the eccentric to hold the file open or closed, substantially as described.

CHARLES THORP GOEWEY.

Vitnesses:

EUGENE J. STILWELL, EDWIN L. FRYER. 

